On Tuesday, the PQ campaign turned into a festival of contradictions as Ms. Marois defended her stance on a sovereignty referendum and her recruitment of billionaire star candidate Pierre Karl Péladeau.

At an event to promote tourism, she declared should the province separate, visitors from the rest of Canada would still be able to enjoy Quebec’s charms without any hassles at customs.

“There will be no borders and no tolls,” she said.

Later when asked whether that meant Quebecers would keep their Canadian passports, she chuckled and explained there would in fact be borders, but she envisages an arrangement like the European Union, where land borders are crossed without showing a passport.

Of course, she is in no position to guarantee that would be the case on both sides of the border, since eventual arrangements would be the result of negotiations. But that was just the beginning of her trip to sovereignty wonderland.

Liberal leader Philippe Couillard hammered the PQ on its plans for a third referendum, saying the party wants “to destroy Canada.”

Every time the PQ raises the spectre of a referendum, Quebec is weakened, he said.

“How does removing Quebecers’ Canadian citizenship — because that is what it means — improve their standard of living?” he asked. “The answer: It doesn’t help Quebecers. It is going to harm Quebec.”

Nonsense, Mr. Marois replied. A sovereign Quebec would be richer, she claimed, citing “some studies in the past.” The ability “to take charge of our own destiny and to make our own decisions” will confer an economic advantage, she predicted.

That is a far cry from the Pauline Marois of 2005, who acknowledged Quebec would face “five years of disturbances” if it voted to secede.

Ms. Marois said she is not bothered by the fact the sovereignty question has been dominating the campaign since Mr. Péladeau, the controlling shareholder and former chief executive of Quebecor Inc., announced his candidacy Sunday with an impassioned plea for independence.

Mr. Péladeau, 52, declared himself a lifelong sovereigntist whose first vote was in favour of independence in the 1980 referendum. But his political donations suggest his commitment to the cause wavered as recently as 2008, an election year, when he donated $3,000 to the Liberals.

Since 2000, records of Quebec’s chief electoral officer show Mr. Péladeau donated a total of $5,000 to the Liberals, $3,000 in the 2007 election year to the now-defunct Action démocratique du Québec and $3,000 to the PQ, in 2010. A PQ official said the party would not comment on his donations.

Ms. Marois had to defend Mr. Péladeau from ethical concerns after he declared his intention to keep his shares in Quebecor if he is elected in the April 7 vote and and appointed to cabinet. Mr. Péladeau has said his holdings will be placed in a blind trust, with instructions not to sell Quebecor.

When it was in opposition, the PQ demanded then-Liberal cabinet ministers David Whissell and Pierre Arcand sell shares in a paving company and an advertising company. At the time, the PQ’s Stéphane Bédard, now Treasury Board president, said a blind trust did not offer sufficient protection against possible abuse.

On Wednesday, Ms. Marois said a blind trust was perfectly adequate in Mr. Péladeau’s case. And she fired back at Mr. Couillard and Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault for expressing fears Mr. Péladeau would marshal his media empire to his political benefit.

“I find it inadmissible that they attack the journalistic integrity, the professionalism of journalists who are perfectly able to respect their own code and to show objectivity,” Ms. Marois said. “I believe that their attitude is completely reprehensible.”

Her position was undercut by the presence directly behind her of Alexis Deschênes, the PQ candidate in Trois-Rivières. Mr. Deschênes, a former legislature reporter for Quebecor’s TVA network, quit journalism to become a lawyer, complaining he feared for freedom of the press. La Presse’s Denis Lessard reported Mr. Deschênes regularly complained to his press gallery colleagues about having his assignments dictated by Quebecor’s upper management.

Now running in a riding considered key to a possible PQ majority, Mr. Deschênes said he could not be happier to have his former boss on the PQ team.

“It’s a source of pride,” he told the local newspaper — just one more contradiction in the PQ campaign.